A Christmas love
by A for Antechinus
Summary: A normal job on Christmas day, brings up past emotions for Grace. With the help of Josh, can she move on from those past hurts and create some positive memory's? Set in a world where Grace isn't married and Josh still talks to his family.


Domestic Violence, it's one of the few things in the job that I hate having to deal with, after everything that happened as a kid, I would be happy never to hear another argument, never have to deal with the affect it has. But I'm are a cop, and even though I'm are in T.R and thus usually don't have to deal with domestic violence, today is Christmas day and everyone is stretched to the limit due to low staffing numbers. So it falls to TR to fall in the gaps. Yet that doesn't stop you from almost groaning out loud when Josh says yes they will get that call, as no one else is available.

You pull up outside a seemingly perfect suburban house, but when you get out, you here the yelling. Looking across at Josh, you nod and walk towards the house shoulder to shoulder. Josh steps forward and knocks on the door. The screaming doesn't stop, so he knocks again. It still doesn't stop, but after a moment the door opens and a blonde haired girl who must be about 5 stands there. You squat down to her eye level, the first thing you notice are the tear tracks running down her cheeks.

"Hi, I'm Grace, what's your name? I say smiling at her to try and reassure her that you and josh good people.

Ally" she says shyly hugging her teddy more tightly.

"Hi Ally, this is my friend Josh' you say indicating the man standing next to you' Her eyes flit to him and then back to you

'are your parents inside?" I ask, even though you know the answer.

She nods and then turns back into the house. We follow her in, the screaming getting slightly louder as we actually enter the house. We hear a crash, I'm guessing a vase, drawing my baton, I look quickly at Ally

"Ally can you stay here for a moment?" I ask, she nods and sits down in the hallway pulling her knees up to her chest and laying her head there.

Josh looks at me then at Ally, nodding he looks back at me and inclines his head towards the next room, where the screaming is coming from. I take a quick look back at Ally who hasn't moved and follow Josh into the room. They don't realise we are there, until I've already entered the room and Josh has had to yell out twice for them to shut up.

They both turn to look at us, faces red with anger and surprise to see us there.

What the fuck are you doing here?" The man asks as soon as it's registered who we are.

"We got called to a disturbance at this address."

"I bet it was that bitch from next door" the man says whilst quickly striding to the window and opening it before yelling out 'you mind your own fucking business next time' whilst he is doing that, I look at the women, she doesn't seem to be injured in any way, looking back at the man he doesn't appear to be injured, but I was right about the vase being smashed, as well as a number of picture frames.

"So what's going on then?" Josh asks looking first to the man then to the women.

"Nothing for you to worry about" the women says angrily

"Well we were called out here, so I guess it is something for us to worry about" I retort

"We've sorted the issue out" the man replies throwing a look of loathing at me.

"Right so when we leave here, we won't be called back in ten minutes because you are still screaming at each other?" I ask, my voice laced slightly with sarcasm.

"no" they both reply vehemently at the same time.

"Good because I am sure your daughter would appreciate not having her parents screaming at all hours of the day especially today as its Christmas day. ' I say a bit more pointedly then I perhaps should have, but the whole situation has pissed me off.

The look of shock that passes over their faces almost bring some satisfaction to my face but instead it fuels my anger, as they've forgotten their own daughter.

"She's asleep, she can't hear us" The women says.

"Asleep? Your daughter is about 5 right called Ally? I ask

"Yes, how do you know?" she asks defensively

Well she opened the door for us, because you guys were too busy screaming at each other to hear us knocking. Now she is sitting in the hallway with her hands over her ears because she can't handle your screaming. That's not asleep" I say, I take another breath and am about to say some more, but catch myself, it will only work me up, and it won't change them.

"Oh" the women says and heads for the door, but Josh stops her.

"You sure this is over?" he asks.

Yes it is" she replies and nods at him, before going into the hallway where we can hear her too cheery voice talk to Ally.

Josh looks over at the man.

This is finished right?"

Yeah" he replies not looking at us

"Good, because your daughter deserves at least one happy day a year right" I say before turning and walking out the door with Josh following quickly

We drive for a few minutes in silence, before Josh pulls over.

"Are you okay?" he asks turning to look at me.

I turn to him,

"Of course I am"

"You were a bit short in that domestic and you've been quiet since"

"Sorry, I was a tad short before, but I just hate domestic's period, it being on Christmas day makes it even worse." I say.

"We all have grumpy days, but are you okay?" he asks continuing to look at me.

"I'm fine honestly" I say smiling at him.

He looks at me for another minute before nodding and turning back to the steering wheel and starting the car."

"You got many plans for after work" He asks after we have been driving for a few minutes.

"Go home, eat Christmas pudding and then sleep" I say smiling at the thought.

"No family?"

"No" I say and he looks at me again for a second before concentrating back on the road, and I realise that the answer probably came out too sharp.

"What about you?" I ask, trying to get the attention off me.

"Home, run, sleep"

"no family?" I ask

"They are in the country, too far to drive after work, I will see them next week when I have some time off" he replies

We leave the conversation there and stay quiet for the rest of the trip back to the depot.

We only have an hour left of shift once we get back, the irritable mood that the domestic put me in, still lingers so I spend the hour cleaning everything in the car, telling Josh that he doesn't have to help, when he offers. He nods quietly knowing my mood is still down, but he goes off without any other words.

"Hey Grace, wanna go for a drink" Josh asks as I am walking out the door"

I groan inwardly but turn around and look at him.

"Please" he asks smiling at me and I can't help but smile back at him.

"One drink, because I really want to just go home and drown my sorrows in Christmas pudding.

"How about drowning your sorrows in a beer and then you can tell me what's been annoying you all afternoon." He asks as we walk out of the depot.

"One drink and I don't tell you what's annoying me" I say teasing him, as we walk out of the building.

Once we are sitting down with our beers, he looks at me.

So what about today that got you down?"

"I am not going there Josh, just drop it okay"

"He nods and we both take a sip of drink, before we start talking about anything else that is not related to today's incident.

Once we are on the second beer, he looks at me again.

"Ok now spill, why the down mood about the domestic?"

I glare at him for a few seconds, but he just stares back.

"And if I don't happen to feel like sharing?"

"it will do you good, promise." He says smiling at me gently.

I contemplate not telling him, just clamming up, but I know he has a point, talking always helps, but this is new territory, I've never really spoken about my home life as a kid, I just thought that was the past, and I don't need to bring it up. I look back at him and see him still looking at me, and I know then that no matter what I say it's not going to be turned into station gossip, that he will listen and not judge.

"The domestic, I just hate domestics, especially those that involve kids, and on Christmas day it's even worse. That couple today, I bet if we looked at the history, they would have pages and pages of domestic call outs." I say in one go, then taking a breath.

"It gets you down every time?" Josh asks quietly

"Not anymore, but sometimes I just" I don't finish the sentence but take another sip of my beer.

"Why?" he asks, and I look up sharply. I look into those eyes that I have known for over a year, and see a friend who cares for me, someone who just wants to know what hurts me. I take another breath and to buy time another sip of beer, so I can figure out if I am going to tell him.

Taking a breath, I start talking.

"Because I was Ally 20 years ago," I don't look at him as I continue to speak, but focus on my beer.

"There was this cop, Senior Constable Amy Mitchel, she came around every time the cops were called on my parents by my neighbours, by me. For over 10 years, she kept coming around giving hell to my parents for creating yet another domestic and did they not know or care about the effect it would have on us kids. Could they not sort it out?. I hated the arguing, but I knew that whenever she came around, there would be peace for a couple of days. She gave me hope that one day I could get out of there, that life could get better. She's the reason I wanted to become a cop, to help other people out if I could. Although I soon found that domestics were not my thing, they always hit too close to home. That's why I am not in a great mood today, reliving past memories." I say stopping before I say anything else and I take a sip of beer.

"I'm sorry to hear that Grace"

"I would never have known that you've come from a family like that, you are so loving, kind and amazing." He says laying his hand on my shoulder for a quick moment.

"I guess that's why you don't go to your family for dinner?" he asks.

"No actually, they disowned me when I became a cop. Told me that cops were just trouble and I was not welcome anymore." I say taking another swig of drink.

"Again I wouldn't have guessed, but it sounds like they don't deserve you" he says looking at me again and smiling.

"What about your life growing up?" I ask, wanting to get the conversation away from me.

"My folks live in the country, and after listening to yours it probably seems impossible, but my mum and dad are so loving, they rarely argued, I think I can count on my hand the number of times they did throughout my childhood. I thought that everyone was like that, I had a bit of a shock when I became a cop and attended my first couple of domestics. He says smiling.

"Well they are lucky." I say taking another sip of beer.

"They're are not the only ones, lots of people have that kind of relationship where they only argue occasionally"

"Yeah I know, it just sometimes it's hard to believe" I say finishing off the beer.

"I could always show you, if you wanted?" Josh says quietly looking at me.

I think for a moment that I have misheard him, and as he starts to apologise I realise that I haven't misheard him after all.

"Josh its okay" I say quickly covering his hand with mine. He looks at me and I see those eyes and smiling mouth curved up and something that I've known subconsciously for months finally clicks into place.

"I would like that" I say a true smile lighting up my features for the first time all day.

That night instead of eating pudding then going to sleep by myself, I end up eating pudding with Josh in between kisses and gentle words, as I drift off with Josh holding me tightly, it crosses my mind that maybe you can have a relationship without domestic violence.


End file.
